Senior Madeleine Kapsalis has been a member of the speech team since her freshman year. She was reluctant to join at first, and she even attended the first few meetings and was still weary about sticking with it. 

“I remember how afraid I was at my first tournament. I was in a school I had never been to, that was filled with kids dressed in pantsuits reciting their speeches to walls,” Kapsalis said. 

But, she said she knew she was in the right place after the first tournaments she went to and found herself “loving it more and more.”

Not many people even know what a Speech Team is, let alone even know that it exists at LFHS. 

A 12 hour day consisting of a 6:30 am bus ride, formal attire, and three to four performances is what a typical Speech tournament looks like. 

Still, Speech Team is more than just meets the eye. 

The team consists of dedicated students and teachers that collaborate from September until February of each year perfecting their speeches and competing at tournaments along the way. 

At tournaments, students are assigned a room with around four to five other students from the same event. There, they each perform for the judge and watch each other’s speeches. 

“The first time I performed my speech, I didn’t have it memorized, so I used the packet that had my script typed on it,” Kapsalis said. “I nervously walked up to the center of the classroom and performed my speech. I found myself becoming less and less afraid. I was enjoying it more than I anticipated.”

Speech can be intimidating, but not nearly as scary as it sounds, Kapsalis said.

“I joined the Speech Team because I’ve always loved public speaking; it’s always been something super interesting to me. I wanted to get better, learn more about it, and compete, and I found a great community to do that,” junior Tally Feingold said. 

Feingold is one of three captains on the team this year, along with Kapsalis and junior Vince Boberski. 

Joining the team her freshman year, Feingold has been an active member, encouraging others to join and try something new. 

Feingold competes in the Dramatic Interpretation (DI) event which requires students to perform a dramatic piece ranging from six to eight minutes while playing every character.

Character pops—switching from one character to another—are something that students are taught to perfect throughout their time on Speech. But, the pops only occur in acting oriented events. 

DI and Humorous Interpretation (HI) are just two of the events offered; these two directed towards an acting based script. 

Head Coach Mrs. Sara Dreiling said that a common misconception about speech is that it is “someone standing at a podium writing their own speeches” because while there are events like that, there is so much more to it. 

“There’s 12-14 different events that people can participate in,” Dreiling said. “Some of them are writing your own speech and delivering it to a classroom full of people but there are also acting events and improvisational, impromptu speaking events. There is something I think that appeals to everybody.” 

It’s just one way for students to showcase their creativity in a multitude of ways. Different events require students to think outside the box and challenge themselves in a unique way. 

“I really love Humorous Duet Acting (HDA),” Dreiling said. “I love the kind of limitations in the acting that goes along with it. You only get like a table and two chairs. Oftentimes people are crawling up on the table and they are singing, and they’re crawling on the floor, and essentially doing whatever they can physically, as well as facial expressions and things like that in order to highlight the comedy of the piece.” 

Humorous Duet Acting, along with Dramatic Duet Acting, requires students to collaborate and work with one another in a specialized way. Students have to make each piece their own to stand out among the judges.  

As a coach, Dreiling is in charge of helping each student enhance their piece in all ways possible. 

“I have to make predictions on what I think other judges are going to pick up on and respond to. That can always be a challenge because I’m not in that judge’s head,” she said. “I don’t know what they will be thinking but as a coach my responsibility is to prepare students for performance that the judges will really respond to and enjoy. As well as to kind of make predictions on what the judges will see as areas of need for improvement.”. 

To make the pieces better, students are required to step out of their comfort zone. Pieces that students pick can demand a lot and ask them to take risks through their physicality and delivery that they might not have ever tried before, Dreiling said. 

Captain Kapsalis said she felt herself stepping out of her comfort zone by doing speech. 

“Yes, giving a speech in front of a crowd might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I highly recommend trying it out a couple times and you might just discover that it’s a great way to get out of your comfort zone,” she said. 

Speech not only gives students an outlet to showcase their talents, but also develop them. 

“I feel like I’ve grown a lot due to Speech Team because it really helps practice dedication. You have to be really dedicated to the team to really want to go to all the long tournaments and everything,” Feingold said. “But it really is worth it because you meet amazing people and have really great experiences.” 

There is a sense of community and competition that unites not only the LFHS Speech Team, but with all competitors from other schools, Dreiling said. At a typical Speech tournament one will find; encouragement, positivity, support. 

Feingold said that at every tournament she has attended, “everyone is really supportive of each other,” which includes cheering people on, smiling, and clapping for one another. 

Throughout the season, the members on the team spend a lot of time together. 

“I really love the time that we spend on the bus together,” Dreiling said. “There was one group of students who really liked musicals. Everybody had a passion for musicals, so on the bus on the way to tournaments we would listen to a different soundtrack for a musical pretty much every tournament and people would sing along.” 

At the end of each season, the team plans an end of the year celebration. There have not been any consistent traditions established for the celebration, but that is what makes each year unique. 

“My favorite Speech Team memory is our team celebration after our last tournament of my sophomore year. We all went to Olive Garden together and had the best time. It was one of those moments where I felt like my team was truly another family,” Kapsalis said. 

Like many things, Speech was forced to adapt because of COVID. 

Instead of dedicating an entire Saturday to a tournament, students submitted a video, and if they qualified for finals, tuned into a google meet for a few hours on that day. 

The demands of Speech Team were less time consuming, increasing the number of members, and team participation. 

Although Speech is no longer run remotely, the team has still managed to stay dedicated. 

Over the course of the past year, the speech team has seen an increase in numbers, and success. 

“The most rewarding part is watching the students grow over the course of the season,” Dreiling said. 

Speech Team is a group effort that works to consistently improve and have fun while doing it. 

“The people you meet, the life skills you learn, and the experiences you have while on Speech team are so worth it,” Kapsalis said.